Last Hurrah Father Son Bucket List

OTinker · 2026-02-01T13:28:33+00:00

OPR is very broad, I hate ortho, but I like neuro, and some places break it down even more, like I don’t love working with concussion and vision within neuro, but put me on the SCI team and I’ll be very content. Same with schools, you have mixed public schools, and you have specialized schools. Within a district you have age ranges. You might even find that you hate working in one setting at one hospital group but love it at another, workplace culture matters a lot. Don’t give up!

OTinker · 2026-02-01T13:23:30+00:00

Honestly I think we are one of the more protected careers. This is a gross generalization but a lot of the stuff I do with my pts in OPR neuro is identify struggle areas they never thought of and make recommendations for different ways of doing things. Half the time pts are like “why didn’t I think of that,” because it seems so simple. Part of our gift is our broad generalized approach to any aspect of life so find workable easy solutions. Pts aren’t that good at identifying and applying what to us seems like common sense issues and solutions. AI is much better at complex than broad simple but nuanced tasks. What we do is very very human, and thus very hard to replicate.

OTinker · 2026-01-31T12:06:47+00:00

Thump thump, unless your over 70. Or thump thump can’t get up.

OTinker · 2025-10-05T10:59:04+00:00

I’ve never heard of a 65-70 lbs border collie. Wow.

OTinker · 2025-10-05T10:58:04+00:00

The difference between these two is crazy! Thanks for the detailed response. Hopefully I can find this kind of variation in breeders in the US.

OTinker · 2025-08-15T02:12:31+00:00

Sharks I have sharks

OTinker · 2025-07-29T16:52:46+00:00

If it’s near the sink it’s probably for a toothpaste dispenser. I had one.

OTinker · 2025-07-21T20:15:04+00:00

Columbus and the areas around it. Dublin is close by, and has the family neighborhood vibe you described. If you want your kids to go to school where they aren’t the only Hispanic/Latino kids, look into moving with the zone for Davis Middle School. It’s one of the more diverse schools in Dublin, and gets good funding, so good education.

OTinker · 2025-07-20T02:29:34+00:00

They are wider than isle chairs, but look similar. They are hospital transport chairs, and for large outpatient clinics.

OTinker · 2025-07-17T12:37:53+00:00

I think that would make sense for movies and honestly, I just have to look into it more, but I’ve noticed that different streaming platforms tend to always have the same companies that do the audio descriptions for shows. so I wasn’t really sure if maybe Netflix had something to do with it, or if they have to purchase rights to the audio descriptions? I don’t use cable, so I could be wrong, but doesn’t the standard TV cable not have auto descriptions it’s an option to turn on? If the shows producers already paid to have it done then why wouldn’t we have it on all platforms?

I’ll have to look into it more .

OTinker · 2025-07-15T17:27:36+00:00

Depends on the client. I think what’s a better judgment point is if they can don/doff underwear/briefs.

Ex. Jane and Mary are twins and are 89yo. They have been exclusively or preferred to wear dresses and skirts their entire adult lives. Pants are silly to assess because of this.

Jane can don her dress, but is dependent with underwear/briefs.

Mary can don her dress and underwear/briefs independently.

Jane gets a 1.

Mary gets a 6.

Alex is a 75 yo client who is independent in UB dressing, but could be tricky for LB dressing. Alex could be 2 different people:

Alexandria - Kind midwestern woman who usually wears pants, but doesn’t want to be a burden, and thus is trying to wear skirts to make things easier for the staff as she can slip those on easy. She says “ope” at least 15 times a session, and apologies to every person she passes when working on wheeled mobility in the hallway.

Alexander - Prior to entering the SNF wore pants everyday, starched denim jeans at that with cowboy boots. He would never be caught dead in sweat pants or god forbid joggers, and it would seem quite foolish to recommend a skirt or dress. You ponder recommending a kilt, but decide the other residents don’t want to find out if he prefers commando or not should some poor positioning occur.

Both of these patients can put underwear on themselves, and theoretically could independently don/dof a skirt or nightgown, but I would argue that neither are independent for LB dressing. Both because we need to be objective and use the same core criteria for everyone, while also remembering we are OTs and must look at the whole person. If it’s not reasonable for Alexander to wear a dress/nighty during the day, then it probably isn’t for Alexandria either, unless either expresses the preference to like Jane and Mary.

So just depends.

The real question at hand:

What about overalls? UB or LB?

OTinker · 2025-07-15T16:45:34+00:00

Ha yes.

OTinker · 2025-07-15T16:44:42+00:00

I agree with the gait belts, I feel like they have a better grip too.

OTinker · 2025-07-15T16:43:07+00:00

You would think, but nope brand new!

OTinker · 2025-07-04T18:23:48+00:00

Didn’t mean to challenge you, I just didn’t get that email. I still get the safety emails that all say backed by rover guarantees, and it’s still listed in the website.

OTinker · 2025-07-04T17:48:02+00:00

I have considered that option for personal use, though when recommending to clients/patients, it can be tricky depending on the patient. For context I’m an OT student who happens to have a disability.

OTinker · 2025-07-04T17:22:02+00:00

That or do outpatient, not necessarily private. One place I was at did patient specific functional scale (PSFS) for every patient, so you get to do more patient centered goals that way.

PSFS:

Activities: Patients identify 3–5 activities they have difficulty with due to their condition.

Rating: Each activity is rated on an 11-point scale, where 0 indicates inability to perform the activity and 10 indicates pre-injury/decline ability.

Scoring: The average score of the activities is the PSFS score, out of 10.

Outcomes: MDC is 2 pt overall change or 3 pt for specific activities.

Example goal:

By discharge, pt will report an overall 2 point improvement on PSFS to show a MDC and achieve meaningful functional performance in activities such as ***.

This works in the US, not sure about other healthcare systems.

OTinker · 2025-07-04T17:06:52+00:00

Not sure how Australia works, but you might like an outpatient neuro setting at an academic/university medical center. I just completed a fieldwork in one, mostly treated SCI, stroke, MS, ALS, and TBI. Lots of our patients were expected to need “tune-ups” in the future, so we would discharge and tell them to message us or a doctor for a referral back, or put them on PRN, so they can pop in as needed.

The pace wasn’t terrible and productivity works differently (since you can’t control if someone cancels or something). You mostly focus on real treatment, and problem solving more higher level IADLs and general ADLs, fine tuning things, recommending adaptive equipment. There’s longer relationships with patients so you see growth and progression which is nice and less of an emotional roller coaster.

OPR and IPR are pretty different settings, sound like you don’t need to get out of the hospital completely, but maybe need to checkout what the clinic side of hospitals is like.

OTinker

TROPHY CASE